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Here's the backstory behind the numerous calls at today's budget hearing for funding a state suicide 
prevention hotline: Idaho's previous hotline closed at the end of 2006 for lack of funding. Since then, various locally funded hotlines around the country have volunteered to temporarily take Idaho calls; currently, Idaho calls are being answered by a locally funded community hotline in Oregon. However, they have less access to local referrals in Idaho to help callers, and funding there is becoming a problem. Meanwhile, news stats, based on 2009 data - the most recent - came out this week showing that Idaho's suicide rate has jumped up to fourth in the nation/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. More here. (Wikipedia photo of suicide prevention photo of Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Calif.)
Question: Wouldn't Idaho have a high suicide rate even it if had a suicide prevention hotline?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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Norther on February 03 at 3:23 p.m.
Yes. It would. There are help lines available for youth, but not so much for adults. After schools are replenished, then give what is left to the hotline, methinks.
Sisyphus on February 03 at 3:34 p.m.
That’s the most callous question I think you’ve ever asked. Our skyrocketing rates could be attributable to slashing all programs at Health and Welfare, most notoriously the Medicaid cuts for the mentally ill. But its not really mental illness. Studies have show that the biggest issue with suicide is the impulsivity of the act and the availability to the mechanisms to act on it, like a gun. I think the availability of a hotline, and talking people through a difficult time is crucial.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html?pagewanted=all
kamm on February 03 at 10:06 p.m.
We’ll never know, will we?